Abstract: Ind J Clin Biochem (Oct-Dec 2021) 36(4):492–497 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12291-020-00950-1 SHORT COMMUNICATION Association of Vitamin D Status with COVID-19 Infection and Mortality in the Asia Pacific region: A Cross-Sectional Study Dharmveer Yadav1 • Amandeep Birdi1 • Sojit Tomo1 • Jaykaran Charan2 Pankaj Bhardwaj3 • Praveen Sharma1 • Received: 14 October 2020 / Accepted: 11 December 2020 / Published online: 3 February 2021 Ó The Author(s) 2021 Abstract COVID-19 has been declared a global pandemic by WHO on 11 March 2020. Still, very little is known about the potential protective dietary factors for the prevention of infection and mortality due to COVID-19. Keeping in view the scarcity of literature/studies available, in this regards present study was undertaken to assess if there is any correlation between mean levels of Vitamin D in various Asia Pacific countries with the infection and mortality caused by COVID-19. We collected data for mean levels of Vitamin D for 37 Asia Pacific countries for which we have also got the data regarding the morbidity and mortality of COVID-19. The mean levels of Vitamin D were found to have a significant association with the number of cases/million(r = - 0.394, p value = 0.016) and a weak association with the number of deaths/ million (r = - 0.280, p value = 0.093) due to COVID-19. In conclusion, we found a significant relationship between Vitamin D levels with the number of COVID-19 cases. So further clinical trial/study with a large sample size is needed to elucidate the protective role of Vitamin D in COVID-19. Keywords COVID-19
Vitamin D levels
ACE-2
Asia pacific region & Dharmveer Yadav dharam143s@gmail.com 1 Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 2 Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India 3 Department of Community and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India